Chapter 76: The Alchemist

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The little tail of the devil wagged on mischievously, "Such alloy is amazingly strong against physical attacks. It also has an outstanding immunity towards beam-based weaponry." The devil carried on tempting his master into this, "The best part is none other than its density, which is astonishingly 1/3 the mass of the lightest alloys currently known for mech-productions. You could easily imagine the terrifying speed it could achieve even with a normal engine from the supermarket."

Ye Chong was triggered, triggered hard. The desire lustered in his eyes became stronger and stronger.

As long as it was something related to machines or mech specifically, Ye Chong would be wholeheartedly attracted.

"I could conclude that this alloy is the most wonderful choice that would have ever existed in the fantasy for mech-productions. Ye, think about it, if you were to make a mech out of this, who knows… Zzt! Zzzt!" Shang tried to voice exclamation through his mechanical beeps which sounded really bizarre to ears.

Ye Chong did not notice the distorted voice-acting from his partner as his mind was all on that illusionary material before him. If all goes exactly as what Shang had mentioned, that would be lovely!

Wait…

He pinched himself back to the reality, "So Shang, do you happen to know the formula for this alloy?"

"Well of course." Shang was proud, "I was unable to identify the source of this formula, but it seems to have existed in the database a long time ago…" His tone sounded confused. "Still most of the data in the folder is badly damaged. Mu and I had tried methods of different kinds for recovery yet it seemed damaged beyond repair."

He halted for ponders, "However… practically speaking, such amount of Do Kun Stones is insufficient to build a mech," he added.

Ye Chong stared at the Do Kun Stone of the size of his fists, as he imagined the mech of height about 10 meters. He has a point. Ye Chong nodded approvingly. He knows metallurgy better than me. I only know about mech machineries. If he says so, then so be it!

He remembered something Shang had stated before, "Shang, did you say that the stones can be cultivated? By using artificial settings to stimulate its growth?"

Shang’s mechanical eyes blinked, "Yes, that is correct. But regarding the exact input for that setting is currently unknown for that part of the data has been destroyed. I only know the fact that Do Kun Stones could be cultivated using a specific kind of methodology. A preset they call it."

"Preset?" It was the first time Ye Chong heard of this term.

Ye Chong seemed pretty intrigued and that excited Shang as he finally got the boy’s interests on the outside world, "A preset is the jargon used among the chemists. It is not surprising that you are unaware of such term."

"Chemists?" Ye Chong was more confused; seemingly this happened to be another of those classes or occupations he had never heard before.

"Or Alchemist some called it. Ye!" Shang’s turned serious in his tone, "There are all sorts of occupations in this world. It was never only the Pilot that matters. You know, there are much, much, much more fun out there than being a pilot for a robot like me. If you held interests on nothing than the mechs, then you are missing out a lot!"

Ye Chong was astounded.

He looked at Shang, "When the heck did you become such a nagging kind? Oh wait, the non-nagging kind was Mu, since he lectures but he doesn’t nag. So Shang, are you the nagging kind for real? I don’t like the habit of nagging you know. You might be right of what you’ve said, but to me, mech is my ultimate interest and being a pilot for a robot like you is the prime joy to my world!"

Man, Mu and Shang sure do not just differ by their names.

"Kaffzzzt! Kaffzzt!" Shang tried synthesizing a sound of cough as he hesitated his response to Ye Chong’s statement. He held up and went silent for a moment. He decided to ignore what Ye Chong had just said, "So, technically, a chemist is the one who cultivates the designated quality or quantity of crops using his or her supreme control over the growth conditions of the said lifeform. It involves biology, developmental biology, chemistry and other scientific studies." It would be better for him to cut the nag and carry on with the lecture, "For instance, we have chemists for spices. They mix some of the cultured solution extracted from the plants of the known spices to obtain spices of a more vibrant or extraordinary flavor. The spices they cultivated would be of high quality and there won’t be side-effects from consumption. So they are much more expensive than the chemical food-flavoring you see in the market." By then Shang believed that Ye Chong would actually consider being an alchemist, "There are also chemists for herbs and food. Most of the consumable products have an alchemist behind the scene; they are very popular among the people, not only because of their premium products, but also…"

Shang’s detailed introduction stopped abruptly.

"But also…?" bewildered Ye Chong, as he asked.

Shang’s white noises of beeping rang for a while. He thought it through and assumed the following statement would not give Ye Chong effects by any degree, "But also… they are mostly women."

Women? Ye Chong snorted. So what if they are all women? What has it to do with me?

Seeing how Ye Chong reacting to his line indifferently, his mechanical voice produced a sigh of relief. It still sounded like distortion though. It was very weird to the ears.

…

…

"Um…" Ye Chong went on with something else, "About this Harmony, I still need some time to get used to it, or it would be too passive for me to react if there was something going on." The nature’s law of survival had been imprinted inside Ye Chong’s mind. Adaptability would be his major concern at anytime, anywhere! He had an absolute confidence of his strength, yet he refused to be lighthearted in the outside world.

He believed that any place could be a war field and he would be dead for sure if he were to relax for even a millisecond in it. The years on Trash Planet-12 taught him alertness, which did not seem really necessary for his current tranquil daily life however.

Fortunately Shang did not overheat from his women talk, "Mhm." He nodded, "Yes, that would be much more important. Let’s see. According to my calculation, in about 3 days time, you should be able to know almost everything on this mech. Even though this mech has an underdeveloped appearance, I would suggest you to stick to it for now. The only useful part of this would be the antique firearm I presume, though you can’t master its use at this point for sure. Mu had already started simulating and calculating the optimum method to use this firearm. So probably by the next time he shows up, he could give you some advice, since dumping the only good weapon you could have would be a big waste."

Ye Chong was overjoyed. He was glad that Mu was doing the calculation for him while he was stuck thinking of a way to use this firearm. Mu… thanks… He was a little touched by his gesture.

The north of the Jesha zone was a barren - utterly barren land. It was harsh. It was deserted after the illegal logging activities by the pioneers at the Blue Ocean planet back then. Since lumbers from an actual natural forest were overpriced in the market, they were willing to destroy the entire habitat to get an exorbitant profit. Eventually this land was murdered like the other lands. But this was one of the worst devastations among them.

The place was absolutely deserted within tens of thousands kilometer of range. It spent half of the days in heavy sandstorm where one could see nothing as if in total darkness. One’s life could be endangered even when one travelled here in a sturdy mech as location services would be unusable almost all the time. If the location services were unavailable to begin with, one could lose the way out and would struggle being blinded by the sandstorm, draining the battery bit by bit as they ran around like mice in a maze. Eventually, they would die due to hunger, fatigue, thirst, whatever cause of death you could name in a desert.

Such a place obviously forbade any form of access, especially explorers on mechs.

And in that sandstorm, oh my gosh, there was actually silhouette of a mech!

Ye Chong piloted the Harmony of Winter Aria with caution. Its fairness was tainted by the veils of dust as it inched towards the storm clumsily. The sandstorm would unquestionably hinder the overall performance of a pilot, thus most pilots would keep themselves away from here. However, if one were to travel through this sandstorm, the Harmony would be the model with the best accuracy. That was Shang’s suggestion after evaluating various aspects on Harmony of Winter Aria. "It should be good enoug,." he commented as he dragged Ye Chong all the way here for vigorous training.

It might sounded a bit absurd but Ye Chong eventually agreed to Shang’s theory.

There was something unique about it.

Harmony accelerated and made a sharp turn. It drew her laser sword and charged up dramatically. The glaring light wielded like a pale yellow halo in the storm. Slash! The sandstorm was cut through. The plasma shield on its left arm shifted stance as it toddled quickly with her body tilting left and right. The laser sword struck swiftly like a serpent when Harmony strangely slid to the side. Its giant body stood in the flow of the storm. A pair of homing blades crossed out the golden cloak of dirt like lightning. An amazing sight it was! They flew back to Harmony’s hands like swallows to the nest afterwards.

The input was executed in perfection. It was seamless and unaffected by the weather.

Ye Chong was satisfied as he saw the happening from the cabin. He would not need that antique firearm even if he were to face an expert like Johansson. The blades would be more than enough.

Kekeke. Shang was proud too when he saw his theory working out after all.

It was a step towards the victory. Nevertheless when Ye Chong exited the area, the Harmony of Winter Aria had lost its former gorgeousness as it was wrecked by the storm. Piled in dust, it just looked like a splat of mud from afar. That was uncalled for. Ye Chong’s eyes went wide like a saucer after climbing out of the cabin. He laughed bitterly. Looks like we have more work to do!

Well at least the goal of the training had been flawlessly accomplished! Ye Chong had mastered the control of the Harmony, which was a big relief to him.

…

"So regarding chemist, I think I could brief you a little," said Shang kindly on the way home.

Yeah. "Brief." That’s what he thought. Not me!

Biology? Developmental Biology? Chemistry? Microbiology? Why is physics involved? Hey, hey, hey! Shang what’s with the huge board? What are you writing? Hold up… Hey!

Ye Chong was having a headache with Shang’s so-called briefing. The holograms of information literally drowned Ye Chong with Shang's voice. He tried to stand still, but the lecture was harsher than the storm. His head rumbled and he fell.

Ugggggghhh...

Oh no! Ye Chong could not hold it any longer! He was moaning in pain!

"So when you try to combine this formula with that, yes, applying this onto the given diagram, assuming we are doing under this condition, substituting the equation with the other theoretical calculations, you'll get… Ye? Ye? Hello?"

The symbols… the alien languages, the scribbles… the graph, the pie chart, the diagram, what? There are also formulae?

It was super effective! Ye Chong fainted!

"Ye… Ye my boy, someone’s looking for you!" Grandpa Qian’s voice rang like a revelation.

Ye Chong sprung out of Shang’s cabin and rushed to the front desk. He would not want to spend any extra second with those horrible things in the cabin. It was too much!

Yang An and Ding Yining were the ones who saved Ye Chong’s life. Yang An skipped the formalities as he sat down, stating the motive of his visit this time. Apparently the academy’s own pilot tournament would start in a few days. So they hoped Ye Chong would be well-prepared and it would be best if Ye Chong could be more cooperative with Yining’s operations in the next few days. Regarding the pay… well it was never a matter to start with.

What a good opportunity! What a good escape plan! While Ye Chong was figuring out a proper excuse to stay away from Shang’s ultimate chemist training program, these two had came! "Yes! Yes! No problem! Certainly!" He nodded his head forcefully and followed Yining home right after. He ran into the storage and asked to begin right away. Ye Chong peeked through the curtains and looked around. Phew! He was safe. And with pleasure, they launched their operations. Ye Chong was very cooperative, as what he had promised Yang An. Yang An was of course impressed by Ye Chong’s initiatives, though Ye Chong did not seem to care about this guy at the slightest bit.

Yining was the kind of maniac who would go wild once his hands reached the cogs. It was no doubt that he made the impeccable combination with Ye Chong who had strong interests in mechs too. Ye Chong never had the chance to realize his hobby till he met Yining and his friends. Now he had tons of toys to mess with. He felt like the happiest man on Blue Ocean planet, especially knowing that he could avoid Shang’s chemist courses completely.

One of them recommended the theory to support the design while the other put the theory into hands. During the process, Ye Chong also sought Yining’s teaching on using these fancy gadgets in his storage and Yining was not shy to bring up all sorts of questions that had been bothering him for long to Ye Chong. They grew on each other. The night was bland. It was only about two men, one interest and a bunch of tools and gears in the house.

Three more days till the tournament…